9-year-old drowns in quarry in Virar East

A nine-year-old boy drowned in a quarry pond in Virar East, raising the year's child drowning toll in the Mira-Bhayander-Vasai-Virar region to seven.

MUMBAI: A nine-year-old boy drowned in a pond inside a quarry in Virar East on Monday, taking the number of children who have drowned in quarries across the Mira-Bhayander-Vasai-Virar region this year to seven.

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According to Virar police, the boy, identified as Durganand Sahu, a resident of Chandansar in Virar East, left home after returning from school on Monday to play with his friends. When he did not return home till 6.30pm, his father Manojkumar Sahu, 37, left home to look for him. On asking around, he learnt that instead of playing near the house, the boys had gone to a quarry near the railway tracks.

When Manojkumar reached the quarry, one of the boys told him that Durgnanad had jumped into the pond and had not surfaced after that. His friends had tried to find him, but were not able to.

Manojkumar then called the fire brigade and the police, who retrieved the boy and rushed him to Sanjeevani Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

The Virar police have registered an accidental death report and are investigating the matter.

“We suspect that the boy did not know how to swim and could not gauge the depth on the pond. But we are probing the matter and recording the statements of all the boys who had accompanied him to the quarry. We are also checking if any caretaker was deployed at the quarry by the Railways,” said a police officer from Virar police station.

In a similar incident, a 22-year-old man from Bhayander drowned in the Chena river in Mira Road on Monday evening. The deceased, identified as Shivkumar Gupta, a resident of Indralok area in Bhayander East, had gone to swim with his friend in the river which passes through the Sanjay Gandhi National Park.

According to the Kashigaon police, his friends informed them about the incident after which they alerted the fire brigade. Gupta was subsequently retreived from the river and rushed to the hospital, where he was declared dead at 8.30pm on Monday. The Kashigaon police have registered an accidental death report in connection with the incident.